Commentary: We're upside down, and crash is coming

In the movie "Flight," something major goes wrong with a passenger jet. It starts plunging downward, the pilot amazingly, incredibly rolls the plane upside down to keep it just barely under control, and, at this point, if President Barack Obama were watching, he'd probably stand up to reassure the audience.

"We don't have an immediate crisis," he would say, an encouraging smile on his face. "The plane is in a sustainable place."

The plane wasn't. Though still in the air, it was definitely heading for a crash, just as our economy and federal government are heading for a crash. The issue is a debt that still menaces the American future, no matter what the president said to ABC correspondent George Stephanopoulos on "Good Morning America."

He pleasantly maintained that deals with Republicans about such things as fiscal cliffs and debt ceilings meant budgetary reasonableness, if not fulfillment of all the best possibilities. His stated view is that we are in a noncrisis situation "sustainable" for the next decade.

Nope. The real prospect is for a $16 trillion-plus debt growing to an economy-squeezing, budget-banging, catastrophe-inviting $23 trillion. You think that's rabble-rousing right-wingers talking? It's nonpartisan number crunchers in the Congressional Budget Office.

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Obama has made it sound as if the accomplishments to date ought to elicit a grin a minute from his once-fretful debt commission. It's still fretful, as Jonathan Karl of ABC reveals in quotes from interviews with its two leaders, Democrat Erskine Bowles, former chief of staff for President Bill Clinton, and Republican Alan Simpson, the always colorful, always wise ex-senator from Wyoming.

There's trillions of dollars more work to do, said Bowles. The responsible parties have stayed away from the "tough stuff," such gargantuan matters as making Social Security solvent or reforming the tax code to make it work. Simpson's word of the day was "madness." Americans are reaching the age of 65 at the rate of 10,000 a day, he said, and federal programs for them are going to "eat a hole through America." Lack of action is not just irresponsible, his words suggested. It is insane.

It's already the case that entitlements -- mainly Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid -- constitute a major share of the budget and are passing the point at which "obese" is an adequate adjective. If the government maintains them without significant restructuring, just two basic ways exist to prevent a debt that could well bring us economic calamity. One is hiking taxes so high as to do the same thing. The other is cutting other federal programs so much as to bring us jokes about ending White House tours for even the president himself.

The problem is that Medicare and Social Security are immensely popular with the middle class and that demagogic politicians have made it sound that even perfectly reasonable refashioning would force the elderly to survive on dog food. Obama is still playing that game, referring to tiptoeing Republican proposals as gutting the programs, which is to say that he remains so enmeshed in his collectivist, welfare-state, big-government ideology that he is can no longer recognize reality.

Republicans to the rescue? The sad case is that some in this beleaguered bunch are lately playing down the looming crisis, too. It is not difficult to find astute fiscal critics who think the most recent budget proposal by Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, does not go nearly far enough.

Back to the movie "Flight." In it, the pilot performed brilliantly during the emergency, even though he was criminally under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Maybe he did as much as could be done, because while the plane did crash, most aboard survived. Obama and GOP leaders are not alcohol-addled, thank heavens, but neither have they performed brilliantly. They have not done a fraction of what needs to be done, and no responsible citizen should let them off the hook. Otherwise, the economic survivors could be a precious few.

Jay Ambrose, formerly Washington director of editorial policy for Scripps Howard newspapers and the editor of dailies in El Paso, Texas, and Denver, is a columnist living in Colorado. Email SpeaktoJay@aol.com.

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stewie23 Mar 27, 2013 12:41 PM

@ bam- March 24, 4:16 comment. That was HYSTERICAL! Buzzy is normally the first to get her licks in. Must have been late getting her morning cup of coffee!

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dman Mar 26, 2013 8:33 AM

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bam, nice job lying again. I see you are just like your GOP buddies. The debt is not up 7 trillion under Obama.

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bam Mar 25, 2013 7:57 PM

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No comprehension of the subject at all.I am amazed you get yourself out of bed buzzy(Or do you?)Hows that trillion dollar stimulus working for you?Or how about the 85 BILLION that buy worthless bonds every month working?But go ahead,tax the rich at 100% and see how well that works for you,but you may want to talk to the leaders in Paris that raised the rate to 45% on the rich and they left.Kind of like the rich leaving California or New York City.Ignorance is bliss in buzzyland.

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BuzzKillington Mar 25, 2013 4:17 PM

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We have to pay our credit card bill that the Republicans racked up. Currently we're running a deficit (more money out than money in) and it follows that the bills aren't getting paid. Obama has shrunk the gap between money in and money out. The common sense easiest way to shrink the deficit more is to end entitlements to corporate welfare queens on the public dole. Naturally the GOP is opposed to ending these gov't handouts because they are the party of the rich. Why won't Republicans take personal responsibility for racking up the credit card with Bushwars and Bushcare?

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bam Mar 25, 2013 2:23 PM

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But yet again you forget you said there isn't a deficit problem.You are the one that seems confused that spending more than you take in is a problem.You complain about people buying houses that they couldn't pay for due to lack of income,but you fail to see that the government is doing the same thing.But what do you expect trying to inform a low information voter,you get a loon that has no clue.Just a little information for you buzzy,if you spend a trillion dollars more than you take in it becomes debt.Thus Obama has added 7 TRILLION dollars to the Federal debt,of course you can't understand economics unless you are standing in line for your next handout.

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BuzzKillington Mar 25, 2013 6:13 AM

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The debt is growing because we have more money out than money in. More money out than in is a deficit and we need to have a surplus. Nobody is surprised you're confused.

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bam Mar 25, 2013 6:08 AM

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Obama has shrunk the deficit?Nearing 7 trillion more debt than the day he took office,but the deficit is smaller?Now that's loon logic.You keep calling Iraq a Bushwar,but wasn't Hillary urging the Dem's to agree?Maybe they should be called bi-partisan wars on a credit card?There goes that selective memory and double standard again. Maybe if buzzy had a few facts along with the rhetoric he wouldn't need scare tactics,but then the dumocrats would have nothing.

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BuzzKillington Mar 24, 2013 6:31 PM

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The debt is growing because we aren't paying our bills that the Republicans (Bushwars and Bushcare) racked up. We have more money out than money in. This makes a deficit when we need a surplus. Obama has shrunk the deficit and slowed our debt growth. We need to continue closing the deficit by closing super rich loopholes and cutting off the corporate welfare queens from the public dole. With this new money in we can pay down the bills. A little more money in and we can buy ourselves some healthcare. Who wouldn't like your insurance money to stay in your pocket and all it takes is for some billionaires to pay as much as a teacher.

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BuzzKillington Mar 24, 2013 11:40 AM

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That's exactly what the GOP did. They put Bushwars and Bushcare on the credit card. Now we have to pay for the Republican dark age.

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anonymous_4064 Mar 24, 2013 11:37 AM

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That would be like Bush starting wars but not worrying about how to pay for them or was lowering the tax for the rich supposed to pay for them.

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bam Mar 24, 2013 11:26 AM

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If deficits really don't matter why not try to spend more than is in your bank account.I'm sure the bank will have something to say to you.

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bam Mar 24, 2013 11:25 AM

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"Raising the debt ceiling is un-American" Barack H.Obama

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BuzzKillington Mar 24, 2013 10:24 AM

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"Deficits don't matter." - Dick Cheney

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anonymous_2091 Mar 24, 2013 9:12 AM

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Another column better placed in the funny pages.

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de789 Mar 24, 2013 8:39 AM

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Its amazing that a nationally syndicated communist can write so many words and say nothing. Yes we do not have an immediate debt problem it is over the long term. No - social security is really not a problem - it can stay solvent forever with a tweak. Yes- we do have a Medicare and health care problem in the country. Solving this problem is more than coupons for granny. Just take the fact that we spend 250 billion dollars a year on diabetes right now and this will continue to grow. Our diet an lifestyle habit are one part of the problem. Another part is the expensive fee for service system we have in the medical industry. Third how about negotiating with drug companies for better drug prices for Medicare? The VA does this and pays half the price. Jay Ambrose is just another bag of hot air - so that airplane does not have any worries as long as he is onboard.

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bam Mar 24, 2013 4:16 AM

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You're up buzzy.

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